JAIPUR: With monsoon approaching and farmers gearing up to sow the next crop, the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) has a big challenge ahead to take possession of remaining acquired land for the ring road project.

As the clouds of uncertainty continue to hover over the project, even those farmers who had surrendered their lands are preparing to sow groundnut and bajra after rain this monsoon.

JAIPUR: The Jal Mahal land lease agreement dispute reached the Supreme Court on Thursday, as was widely anticipated.

The private company, the Jal Mahal Resorts Pvt Ltd that was to lose the lease after the Rajasthan High Court declared the agreement illegal, filed a special leave petition (SLP) before the apex court, challenging the verdict passed on May 17. The SLP was mentioned before a division bench of Justice Deepak Verma and Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya that directed that the case to be listed again on Friday.

It took a year of peaceful protests for 3,000-odd villagers of Rojka Meo in Mewat district to finally get their due. They were given revised compensation of their land taken up by the government for developing an industrial township in the area. On Thursday, a large number of villagers sat on a dharna on the Gurgaon-Alwar State Highway at Rojka Meo in Mewat district for seven hours. It was after this that a decision to hike their compensation by Rs 21 lakh per acre was reached.

Rajasthan, which had prided itself on leading the way in relocation of villagers from its tiger reserves, is now facing a backlash. Villagers living inside Sariska reserve are in agitation mode and are refusing to be relocated.

Their complaint is that the `10 lakhs being offered to them by the government is completely inadequate. Gujjar leader Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla is also supporting their agitation which is also being fuelled by mine owners who operate on the boundaries of Sariska and who want to restart their mining operations.

JAIPUR: A division bench of Rajasthan high court has observed that the mining mafia is at its peak in the state and there is no effort to check them. The court made this remark while hearing a PIL filed by a Bharatpur-based advocate.

The petitioner, Battu Singh, has moved the court alleging that four politically powerful persons have been doing illegal mining in forest area in Bayan tehsil of Bharatpur. The case is being heard by Chief Justice Arun Kumar Mishra and Justice N K Jain (senior).

Kolkata The Prime Minister’s Office is asking state-run power utilities to follow the West Bengal model in terms of tariff. The said model keeps a margin after realising the real cost of production.

The move may have been prodded by the Planning Commission, which is pushing the Centre to raise the borrowing limits of Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, so these states can take further loans to clear the power sector of debt.

Power sector losses are accumulating as states continue to follow a cautious and staggered approach on tariff hikes despite the hefty increase in electricity purchase costs in recent years.

Rajasthan needs to hike its electricity tariff by 80%, Madhya Pradesh 65%, Tamil Nadu 55%, Punjab 24% and Haryana 15% to bridge revenue gaps of their discoms, according to credit ratings agency Icra.